With the vote on Tuesday, The Los Alamitos Unified School District has agreed to “withdraw its intention” to layoff 277 classified employees, bring back more than 90 percent of the 292 positions it voted to eliminate on August 11.
The positions “should not be eliminated” until “further action by this board,” said board member Marlys Davidson, reading the resolution to restore the positions.
The board voted to bring back 151 positions after last week’s opening of elementary schools and 126 more this week, following the opening of middle schools.
In fact, Dr. Joe Fraser, Assistant Supt. for Human Resources, said even the ones not brought back to their full capacity, will eventually be brought back in some way to one of the campuses.
“Our goal was to bring back our classified positions,” said Fraser.
“We’ve said that since the beginning,” he added.
At the time of the layoff, however, there was no certainty that schools would be opened at all and the board was told state policies require districts to lay off workers without work. The resolution said the classified employees were now required by “operational needs” of the district.
Board member Dave Boyer said the district “always wanted” to see students back in school and bring the positions back but that the board “wanted to do it safely.”
Fraser also announced collective bargaining agreements had been reached with the Los Alamitos Education Association (LAEA) and the California School Employees Association (CSEA).
“Although it was a long process, it feels good to come to an agreement,” said Fraser.
Board President Meg Cutuli said because of COVID, it was harder to communicate and not being able to meet in person made negotiations more difficult, but she thanked everyone for their work.
Davidson thanked Mitch Kam with CSEA and praised Stacy Schmitz with LAEA, who she said is a teacher, has children in high and elementary school and still manages to “give her heart and soul” to the teachers.
